Oak Ridge Today

ORPD participates in Drug Take Back Day

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The Oak Ridge Police Department and ASAP of Anderson will participate in the national DEA Drug Take Back Day next Saturday.

The Drug Take Back Day is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 27. Anyone in the community can drop off their expired or unused medication to a police officer at the ORPD at 200 South Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge, a press release said.

According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the most common method of obtaining pills is through family and friends.

“Prescription drugs could be easily stolen at home when they are left in unlocked cabinets and drawers,” the press release said.

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Bond in murder case set at $1 million

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Nathan Newport

Bond for an Oliver Springs man accused of murdering his wife Monday morning was set at $1 million.

The bond order for Nathan Lee Newport, 60, was signed by new Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Matthew Tuck on Tuesday.

TBI: Man fatally shoots woman, denies aid

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Nathan Newport

A 60-year-old Oliver Springs man allegedly killed a 52-year-old woman with a shotgun Monday morning and, during a police standoff, refused to let officers give her medical aid, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The man, Nathan Newport, 60, has been charged with criminal homicide—first-degree murder. He is alleged to have killed Janice Newport, 52, in a home in Oliver Springs at about 6:30 a.m. Monday.

TBI investigating man’s death

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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating the death of a 39-year-old man during an interaction with Oak Ridge police officers in the Hendrix Creek subdivision on Sunday afternoon.

Oak Ridge Police Department officers had made contact with the man, Tyler Jones, after receiving a report of a suspicious person around Heritage Drive, the TBI said. He began showing signs of distress, and medical personnel were called.

“At some point during the encounter, after medical personnel arrived, Jones became unresponsive,” the TBI said. “Officers immediately rendered aid until paramedics arrived. He was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.”

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Rocky Top woman pleads guilty to murder, sentenced to life

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Christy Viola Comer, left, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, listens to testimony during a preliminary hearing in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. At right is defense attorney Leslie Hunt. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

An Anderson County woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in the death of J.C. Copeland, an 83-year-old Rocky Top man, and she was sentenced to life in prison plus an extra 20 years.

Christy Viola Comer, 41, entered the guilty plea in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Tuesday afternoon.

Woman charged with murder in husband’s death after 7 years

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Samantha Hendley

The wife of Thomas Steven “T.S.” Thrasher has been charged with first-degree murder after his death in 2014, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Samantha Anne Hendley, 35, of Harriman, was indicted last week by the Anderson County Grand Jury, and she was arrested and booked into the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton on Monday morning, the TBI said. Her bond has been set at $1 million.

The indictment and arrest followed seven years of casework by TBI special agents, the agency said.

Thrasher, 29, was shot and killed inside his home at Rolling Hills Apartments on December 8, 2014.

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Sexual harassment lawsuit against county appealed to Sixth Circuit

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The Joel W. Solomon Federal Building United States Courthouse is pictured above on Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

A jury found she had been sexually harassed while working for Anderson County, but the county was not liable.

Then, since she did not prevail in the civil trial, she was ordered to pay about $1,800 in costs to Anderson County.

Statutory rape, misconduct charges dismissed against former officer after probation

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Charges against Cassen Jackson-Garrison, right, a former Oak Ridge Police Department police officer, were dismissed this year after two years of supervised probation. Jackson-Garrison had agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct in 2017. His attorney, Greg Isaacs, left, said Jackson-Garrison had accepted responsibility for the allegations, and he compared Jackson-Garrison’s childhood story to the one portrayed in the movie “The Blind Side.” The probation was a judicial diversion, allowing the felony charges to be dismissed if Jackson-Garrison complied with the terms and conditions. Jackson-Garrison and Isaacs are pictured above during a plea agreement hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

After a two-year probation, charges were dismissed this year against a former Oak Ridge Police Department officer who had agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct in 2017.

His attorney successfully asked for judicial diversion for Cassen Jackson-Garrison, 36, more than three years ago, although the state opposed it. The judicial diversion gave Jackson-Garrison, a former star football player, the opportunity to have the felony charges dismissed and expunged, or removed from his record, at the end of his probationary period. But he had to comply with the terms and conditions. The two-year supervised probation ended in December 2019.

For members: Three plead guilty, one sentenced to 10 years in drug conspiracy after overdose death

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The Howard H. Baker Jr. United States Courthouse is pictured above in Knoxville on Jan. 19, 2020. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Three people have pleaded guilty in federal court to drug and conspiracy charges related at least in part to an overdose death due to fentanyl in Oak Ridge in 2017. One of the defendants, a 28-year-old Knoxville woman, was sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison on Thursday. The drug conspiracy involved the distribution of fentanyl and heroin.

The Knoxville woman, Katarina S. Carinci, pleaded guilty last year. She was sentenced to 125 months, or 10 years and five months, on July 1 in U.S. District Court in Knoxville by District Court Judge Thomas Varlan. Her prison sentence will be followed by five years of supervised release.

Nine men arrested in undercover human trafficking operation

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Pictured above are, from left in top row, Alex Hickey, Darron C. Hickman, Jeremy Williams, Jose W. Salguero, and Joshua Wilson, and from left in bottom row, Joshua Winningham, Juan Gomez, Michael Houck, and Michael J. Slover. (Photos by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation)

Nine men, including at least five who met with undercover agents posing as juveniles, were arrested on trafficking, sex, and prostitution charges in Oak Ridge on Thursday during a two-day covert operation targeted at human trafficking in East Tennessee.

As part of the operation, law enforcement officers said they placed several decoy advertisements on websites known to be linked to prostitution and commercial sex cases.

DA: No charges will be filed in fatal police shooting

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No criminal charges will be filed against three Oak Ridge Police Department officers after a fatal shooting on Briar Road in August, the county’s top prosecutor said Monday.

Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark released his report about the police shooting on Monday morning.

The report said that the man who died in the shooting, Fred J. Arcera, 25, was a U.S. Army veteran who had mental health problems and was reported to be suicidal—telling officers to kill him—and he had large butcher knives and had threatened officers, moving toward them with the knives that Saturday night.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation investigated the shooting, which is common after law enforcement officers fatally shoot someone.

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TBI, DA: Police report they shot, killed man after he charged at them with knives

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Note: This story was last updated at 7:30 p.m.

Three Oak Ridge police officers reportedly shot at a man and he was struck and killed Saturday night after he allegedly charged at the officers with two knives, according to state officials.

The shooting was reported on Briar Road just before 9:30 p.m. Saturday, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The man who allegedly had two knives and was shot and killed was Fred John Henry Arcera, 41.

The Oak Ridge Police Department had responded to a report of individual needing help.

“At some point during their interaction, Arcera reportedly came at the officers with the weapons, resulting in three officers firing shots, striking him,” the TBI said. “He was pronounced dead at the scene.  No officers were injured during the incident.”

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